


Until the Morning Comes

by heartsick_stranger



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Cuddle Sessions, F/M, alex and reggie and willie are all mentioned but not there, julie is the big spoon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-09
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:54:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27466009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heartsick_stranger/pseuds/heartsick_stranger
Summary: “You guys were getting the jolts so bad before I left… I thought you were already gone.”“Julie, no, we wouldn’t—”She nearly glares at him when he starts that sentence, because if he tries to say that they’d never leave her then she might actually scream. Not everybody plans on leaving; sometimes it’s out of their control.—Julie and Luke talk and cuddle after the Orpheum.
Relationships: Julie Molina/Luke Patterson
Comments: 14
Kudos: 367
Collections: JATP Appreciation Week, Kelly's Picks





	Until the Morning Comes

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this as a part of the JATP appreciation week that's going on on tumblr. I'm SEVERAL days late but I was way busier than expected. The day 3 prompt was favorite ship (and I was gonna write Willex but I couldn't think of anything :/ ) so here's some Juke!

Julie can’t sleep.

After her conversation with Carlos about how she managed to find a ghost boyband— she  _ has _ to laugh a little when she hears the word boyband, because she can imagine Luke’s face of indignation— she takes a shower and sinks under her sheets, finally exhausted with her rollercoaster of a day.

And yet, though she thought she was almost certainly going to fall asleep as soon as her back hit the mattress, here she was nearly an hour later, staring blankly up at the ceiling.

She wants to hug her dad. She wants to hug Carlos again. She wants to hug the boys again.

She wants to hug Luke again.

There’s still a faint thrumming, buzzing feeling under her skin, and she’s not sure if it started when she hugged Luke or when she hugged all the boys or when the stamps came off or maybe when she got off the stage at the Orpheum. Maybe it was when she got on the stage. Maybe it was when that woman in the alley handed her a dahlia. Maybe it was when she thought the guys were all gone for good.

She doesn’t know. She probably won’t figure it out tonight, no matter how long she stares at her bedroom ceiling.

Julie sighs and rips the covers away, immediately overcome by a bout of shivers that wracks her body. She lets out a low grunt and shuffles over to her closet, and feels the material of the different items in her wardrobe until she finds one of her sweatshirts, and slips it over her head.

When she opens the doors of the garage, she’s surprised to only find Luke inside. He’s not in the sleek dark blue and black vest he wore to the Orpheum, but rather back in his own clothes— one of his many sleeveless shirts and a pair of sweatpants, plus a cozy-looking gray sweater that’s hanging off his shoulders— and the sight of him writing in his journal in one of the sofa chairs makes her heart clench a little.

Just a few hours ago, she’d had to tell herself that she’d never get to see him like this again.

“Hey, Luke,”

He looks up with a smile. “Julie!”

He drops his pencil into his journal and leaves it closed on the seat. “I thought you were asleep,” Luke mumbles, though the words are only barely within her hearing range until he approaches, “is everything okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” she assures him. “Where did Alex and Reggie go?”

“They’re seeing if they can find Willie,”

Julie’s eyebrows draw together and she can feel her forehead wrinkle. “You didn’t go with them?”

“Alex wanted to go alone but Reggie and I wouldn’t let him,” she walks with Luke over to the couch. “Reggie thought either all of us should stay or all of us should go look.”

“Why?”

Luke goes quiet. It’s one of the only times since she’s met him that he hasn’t said what he’s thinking, and it’s a little bit worrying. This is the same boy who has jammed his way into her heart in the weeks since they first met, the same one who told her never to ask permission when it came to music, the same boy who climbed up onto her mother’s piano and tried to  _ make _ her understand how talented she was, the same boy who had told her less than two hours ago that no music was worth making unless they were making it with her.

This boy, who’s so driven by ambition and the desire for everyone to  _ hear _ his music and feel connected by it, seems quiet and almost withdrawn.

“Luke,” Julie reaches out, hoping her hand won’t go through him, and almost breathes out a sigh of relief when she feels his shoulder under her hand.

“Alex said you looked like you had been crying, when he first appeared on stage,” Luke says instead. “Why?”

Julie bites her lip and looks down. The conversation she had with her mom’s ghost in the alley behind the Orpheum… that’s her own business. But the reason for it?

“You guys weren’t there and I was supposed to go on. And I even told Flynn that you guys wouldn’t stand me up again,” Julie says quietly, her hand dropping from Luke’s shoulder. He holds her hand in his, and she inhales shakily. “You guys were getting the jolts so bad before I left… I thought you were already gone.”

“Julie, no, we wouldn’t—”

She nearly glares at him when he starts that sentence, because if he tries to say that they’d never leave her then she might actually scream. Not everybody plans on leaving; sometimes it’s out of their control.

“We would have told you if we thought we wouldn’t make it to the show,” he tells her.

“Then what happened?”

Luke looks away again, and she gently squeezes his hand. He lets out a near shudder. “Caleb got to us.”

“What?” Julie doesn’t know if it’s fear or anger that stirs up. Maybe both. “When? Where? How?”

“He appeared right here, in the garage, right after you left,” Luke tells her, and she reaches up with her free hand to hold his face. “He forced us to come to the club, and he gave us these really restricting suits that looked cool but felt  _ awful _ , and the music felt rotten, Jules, like the opposite of all the music we’ve made with you where it felt genuine and real and made me happy and alive.”

“Luke—” she tries, but he keeps going.

“I hated it so much but he threatened us, Julie. First he threatened all of us— he threatened me with the idea of getting to stay on stage after the music, and he threatened Alex with Willie and Reggie with the idea that we could all be together forever and—  _ God _ , I don’t think Caleb will ever understand, but playing for his club could  _ never _ be the same as playing with you. It’s not all of us together unless together includes you!”

Luke’s panting a little once he finishes talking, which Julie doesn’t completely understand— because they’re ghosts and technically they don’t need to breathe, so how can they be panting or out of breath?— but she pushes the thought aside.

“Luke, hey,” she murmurs, and he meets her eyes. She gives him a weak smile and her hand drops from his cheek. “I’m here. You’re here. I don’t know how Caleb knew to find you here but if he comes back then we’ll deal with it. All of us. Together.”

Luke nods and smiles back at her, weakly, and she finally sighs and lets her forehead bump lightly against his. Luke freezes, but once she squeezes his hand he comes back to life, closing his eyes and seeming to relax a little.

Again, how do his shoulders look like they’re loosening if he doesn’t have muscles anymore or an actual body?

“You should probably go back to bed,” Luke points out, after a few seconds.

Julie leans back, away from Luke, and shakes her head. “I don’t think I’m going to be able to sleep much tonight. My brain is still processing everything.”

Luke smiles. “Do you want to stay here with me, then?”

Julie nods. “I’d like that.”

They fold out the couch into a bed— because the couch is too narrow a space for them to share without them literally laying on top of each other, and Julie is only comfortable cuddling like that with Flynn at this point— and she lays on her side next to Luke, who’s staring right back at her.

“Hi,” she murmurs, hoping to break the awkward silence of them staring at each other.

“Hi,” he says back, and they both chuckle.

“Are you comfortable?” Julie asks.

“Yeah, it feels like home. I used to sleep on this couch all the time… after I ran away,”

Julie’s eyebrows knit together again. “Is that why you called this your couch, that night we first met?”

Luke’s ears turn pink, and he scratches the back of his neck. “Yeah, kinda,”

They talk about other things, inching closer and closer together until Julie finds herself grinning, wondering how she ever tried to deny that she had feelings for this boy. This undeniably charming, ridiculously dorky 17-year-old dead boy who came crashing into her life.

“What?” Luke asks, also grinning by now at something that one of them said.

Julie just shakes her head. “Nothing,” Then she yawns suddenly, and gets an idea. “Turn over?”

“What?” Luke says again, this time looking more confused than amused. “Why?”

“Are you okay with cuddling?”

Luke nods and turns around immediately, and Julie thinks she would have hurt herself if she’d tried to twist her body that fast. She giggles a little at Luke’s eagerness, and wraps her arms around his torso. Her forehead is in his hair and her nose is at the nape of his neck.

If he were the big spoon right now then she’d definitely be freaking out. Or laughing, because she’s really ticklish.

Then she notices that he hasn’t said anything, and notices that he’s breathing in and out like he’s trying not to freak out, and she frowns.

“Hey, are you okay? Is this okay?” Julie asks, loosening her arms a little already. Luke’s hand on her arm stops her.

“I’m fine, don’t worry. I just—” Luke’s hand folds over hers, intertwining their fingers. “I don’t know if I’ve ever really been held like this before.”

Julie frowns. “Well, that’s a crime,” she says jokingly.

“Yeah,” Luke replies, and in a softer tone, adds, “Everyone deserves to be held like this.”

Julie smiles. “Yeah.”

She places a gentle kiss at the back of his neck, and then tightens her arms around him a little. He squeezes her hand gently.

“I love you, Julie,”

“I love you, too, Luke,”

She drifts off soon after, feeling secure knowing that he’s safe in her arms tonight.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! All comments are appreciated.
> 
> You can find me on tumblr @/heartsick-stranger


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